I'm Back…
The month-long rigorous temporary assignment is finally over. Returned from the great northwest of China to the great northwest of Shanghai. I’ve been wanting to write something, but losing my camera means I don’t have much to record. Such a pity for my photos of the yellow earth. I’ll make up for it later if I get the chance. Below is my temporary assignment summary. To please certain people within my Party, some parts are a bit cringey. Please forgive me if you’re cringed out.
Dingxi City, Gansu Province — Temporary Assignment Summary
From July 15, 2008 to August 15, 2008, dispatched by Tongji University, I came to the Dingxi City Government for a temporary assignment. During this month, we experienced the life of “the bitterest, poorest land in central Gansu,” and also felt the indomitable will and spirit of the people living on the Loess Plateau.
Work
On my second day in Dingxi, I was assigned to the Dingxi City Government Informatization Office. The office is on the sixth floor of the city government building, with five staff members, mainly responsible for the city’s informatization planning, e-commerce, e-government construction, and basic IT infrastructure.
In recent years, Dingxi’s information industry has just started and developed relatively quickly. Currently, 30% of municipal departments and subordinate counties have established core office applications and homepages, over 40% have set up auxiliary business management information systems, around 10% have leadership decision-support application systems, and a small portion of municipal departments and county governments have built government websites. Compared to developed regions, these numbers are negligible, but for a newly emerging area, the development cannot be called slow. Currently, most of Dingxi’s IT investment goes to network infrastructure, with only a small portion for information resource development and application system development. Due to the common phenomenon of “hardware first, software later” in IT development, hardware investment naturally takes a larger share in the early stages, gradually decreasing — a universal pattern. Dingxi is transitioning from hardware to software investment. In July 2008, Dingxi was designated by the former Ministry of Information Industry as a national rural informatization comprehensive information service pilot city — the first such pilot in Gansu Province. This is certainly an affirmation of Dingxi’s years of IT construction.
The Informatization Office also maintains two websites: the Dingxi City People’s Government portal (http://www.dx.gansu.gov.cn/) and China Potato City (http://www.potato8.com). Both have been open for just over half a year. The government portal is a channel for government information release. China Potato City uses “potato” — Dingxi’s calling card — as its招牌, with the government building the platform and enterprises and farmers performing, jointly promoting Dingxi’s potato industry to the nation. This reflects the local government’s emphasis on agricultural support and specialty industry promotion.
Our main work was assisting in maintaining these two websites — updating information and planning columns — and handling government electronic document circulation. In less than a month, I learned about Dingxi city government’s efforts in informatization, as well as their shortcomings compared to developed regions. For the Dingxi government website, while handling daily news and document updates, I delved into its architecture, columns, and current functions, and made suggestions on column positioning and backend functionality. I also offered my views on system management, maintenance, and basic IT construction, drawing on experiences from developed provinces.
Regarding document circulation, most government documents use the Founder排版 system format, which cannot be directly published on the internet. Manual conversion is time-consuming and inefficient. To change this manual format conversion situation, I developed a software tool that converts Founder-format documents to Word and txt formats, substantially reducing the burden of manual document processing.
During this short month, I formed deep friendships with my office colleagues through cooperation and communication. I look forward to the opportunity to return to Dingxi and meet them again.
Research
Beyond work, we also visited enterprises, schools, and surrounding villages in Dingxi.
In Huining County, we visited the meeting site of the Red Army’s Long March and learned about the Red Army’s spirit of defying hardship and striving for ideals. In Xigongyi Town, Dingxi, we visited the Shanghai Hope Primary School and the Tongji Hope Forest carefully cultivated by President Wu Qidi and others, and talked with teachers, deeply experiencing the students’艰难求学 and their heartfelt gratitude for the help from Shanghai people. On the way to Huining, we saw layers of yellow earth hills on the Loess Plateau and witnessed people’s efforts to control soil erosion and green the land despite scarce water resources.
In Daping Town, we saw the local people’s determination to fight heaven and earth to transform nature. Before the uniform farmhouses, the new office buildings, the precious reservoirs, and the places where General Secretary Hu visited and spoke twice, we deeply felt the indomitable, tenacious, and optimistic attitude of the people living on the yellow earth.
At the Dingxi wastewater treatment plant, we saw that even with extreme water scarcity, people still remember environmental protection and energy saving. At the ten-thousand-ton saline water desalination project plant (also the country’s first high-tech saline-alkali water desalination project), we witnessed their efforts to use high technology to improve harsh water conditions.
Wherever we went, the name most mentioned by farmers, cadres, rural teachers, and the public was our school’s Teacher Zhang Peiying. From their words and expressions, their respect and gratitude for Teacher Zhang were evident, highlighting the tangible help Teacher Zhang’s work in Dingxi has brought to the local community.
Life
Before coming to Dingxi, I’d heard it was known as “the bitterest, poorest land in central Gansu.” Due to lack of water resources, life is quite tough. On the train to Dingxi, the yellow earth hills along the way gave us a feeling we’d never experienced.
After arriving in Dingxi, we gained a deeper understanding of the water shortage. Many households don’t have running water — they rely on rainfall, storing rainwater in cellars and treating it minimally before use by people, crops, and livestock. Even in Dingxi city, tap water quality is poor — calcium carbonate hardness reaches 600 mg/L untreated, far exceeding the national standard of 450 mg/L. The water we boil often has two layers of scale. The kettle develops a thick layer of scale after just a few uses, forcing us to drink tea instead.
Although May 12 — the day that shocked and broke the nation’s heart — is gradually fading, moderate aftershocks continue. Dingxi is close to Sichuan, so every aftershock is clearly felt. I experienced three noticeable earthquakes here. The first was at 2 AM — I was shaken awake. The others occurred during work — the whole room kept shaking, lasting about half a minute. The first earthquake was terrifying, but I noticed my colleagues showed little reaction (probably used to it), so I stopped being afraid afterward.
During this month in Dingxi, the Beijing Olympics opened, but my accommodation had no TV. Thanks to local leaders’ concern, I was given a 16-inch Hitachi color TV. Though not very clear, I could receive CCTV-1 and the military channel. So I finally watched the CCTV 1 live broadcast of the Olympic opening ceremony and kept up with the latest news of the Chinese team’s拼搏 and medal achievements.
Afterword
Although the time was short, I gained a lot. This was my first visit to China’s great northwest, understanding where the ancestors of the Chinese nation lived, experiencing the Silk Road and the yellow earth戈壁. I also gained personal insight into the culture and people of western China.
My biggest regret is that this month fell during summer vacation — students were already on holiday — so I couldn’t communicate with Dingxi’s students or help them academically or in life.
One month is short, fleeting. The time to leave arrived. Before departure, a colleague asked me when I would return. I was suddenly struck speechless. Yes, after this parting, who knows when I’ll revisit. But I believe, with Tongji University and Dingxi’s decade-plus collaboration, there will always be successors to carry this cooperation and friendship forward.